An award-winning regional business editor has died aged 63.

Tributes were paid to Peter Jackson, who was named North East Business Journalist of the Year four times during his time at Newcastle Daily The Journal.

While at the Journal, he also helped the newspaper become the national title of the BT Regional Press and Broadcast Awards in 1998 and Business Paper of the Year in 2001.

Peter, pictured, suffered from a long-diagnosed condition affecting his breathing which had worsened over the past year.

He had worked on the second installment of a historical fiction trilogy before he died.

Graeme Whitfield, the Journal’s current editor, said: ‘Peter was a big presence in the newsroom – knowledgeable and fun and a great writer.

“It was great to see Peter turn to fiction so successfully and I’m only sorry we didn’t get to see more of that ‘second act’ in his writing career.”

Born in Lancashire, Peter studied modern history at Oxford University before going to work in the City of London for eight years for Coopers & Lybrand accountants, merchant banks and stockbrokers.

While in London he met his wife Anne in 1984 and the couple decided to return to Lancashire four years later.

There they ran a cleaning and car wash business for a time, where Peter decided to retrain as a journalist at Lancashire Polytechnic.

After graduating he worked for Lancashire newspapers, including the Chorley Guardian, before moving to the North East of England and joining The Journal.

Peter was a business editor for four years and a business reporter for three years, with one year as a feature writer, before he left in 2002.

He worked in public relations but returned to writing in 2008 and, as a freelance journalist, spent two years editing North East Contact and BQ2 magazines, contributing to regional and national publications on topics ranging from interviews with business celebrities at shows.

Two years ago he published his first fiction novel, Legions of the Moon, a historical adventure set in the Roman fort of Longovicium as a location.

Peter died on March 31 with his wife by his side and he is also survived by his son Harry.

His funeral took place on Thursday at Mountsett Crematorium, Dipton, County Durham.